Montreal R+B sensation Carl Henry is ready to expand his audience with his expanded musical palette. With two Juno nominations and radio play across North America, Europe and Jamaica already under his belt, Henry enlisted collaborators such as Shaggy, Dr. Doo, Cecile and others to bring more dancehall and hip-hop sounds to his second disc.

Henry’s music naturally brings out different sounds. Growing up first in Jamaica and then Montreal, Carl sang gospel in church choirs. His Yugoslavian step-father exposed him to opera andother classical music, while his older brother got him into dance hall and contemporary sounds. His first album, RNB, was even released with a French version, Solution RNB. “When you’re younger you don’t realize it,” Henry says, “you don’t understand that you have different ‘influences’. It’s just who you are until you’re older and you look back and examine it.”

Henry hopes that his latest album, still unnamed with a release planned for Summer, will serve notice of the strength of the Montreal music scene. “There’s a strong hip-hop, urban underground in Montreal that’s just not developed into large exposure yet. There’s a lot of talent here waiting for the chance to be given a shot.”